


Broken Bow

by whiteraven1606



Series: Arrows in Flight [6]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Aftermath, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode: s01e23 Sacrifice, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-18 00:38:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grief and shock in the direct aftermath of the manmade earthquake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Bow

**** 

Felicity bit her lip as she listened to Oliver's open feed. Behind her, Diggle stumbled down the stairs.

"Felicity..."

She shook her head. "Busy." She wiped at her cheek as Oliver wailed at Tommy to please just open his eyes. She gulped and glanced up at Diggle as he came alongside her. Flicking her side of the audio off mute, Felicity took a deep breathe. "Oliver. I know you want to stay there, I get it, but you _have_ to move. Out, out, right now, Oliver."

There was a strangled sob from his end and then she could hear scraping. "He saved Laurel."

Felicity nodded and brushed off Diggle's hand on her shoulder, she needed to focus to be Oliver's focus when he couldn't do it for himself. "I know. Tommy is totally awesome. Oliver, you need to come help me. I..." She looked around and grabbed up Diggle's least favorite coffee cup and smashed it on the floor beside herself. She squeaked as it hit. "Oliver!"

His breathing picked up and the scraping noises got louder. "Felicity, get out of the building. I'm coming."

"Oliv..." She cut the feed to mute and covered her mouth with her hand. "He's going to be so mad at me."

Diggle heaved a sigh and dropped to sit next to her. "No, he won't. Well, not for long."

She snorted and put Oliver's side of the feed on speaker so they could both hear it as she followed Diggle's instructions on how to bandage him up.

Oliver clattered down the stairs faster than he normally ever did. He froze at the bottom of the stairs, took in the broken cup, Diggle's bandage, her bloody hands, and he just dropped to his knees right there.

"Oh, that's not good." Felicity looked to Diggle. "Help?"

Diggle frowned and tugged his shirt back down into place with a wince. "Check on the Glades, okay?"

Felicity glanced at Oliver, kneeling, his ribs heaving with soft sobs. "Yeah." She grabbed Diggle's sleeve. "Don't tell him to stop crying or anything stupidly macho, please?"

Diggle frowned at her. "Felicity."

She nodded as she let him go. "Right, right. You're an Army veteran. I remember." She turned towards the news feeds. She needed to find the Lances, both of them, death counts, and had Thea been with Laurel today? So, add that name to the must find now list.

****

John knelt next to Oliver and gingerly lay his arm across Oliver's shoulders. When no attack came, John tugged on Oliver until he stood up and stumbled with John over to the tiny cot against the wall.

"Here, sit down, Oliver."

Oliver sat, more fell than anything, and slumped against John's stomach. "I failed."

John stood still, giving Oliver something to lean against. He pushed Oliver's hood back and ran his fingers over Oliver's hair. "No you didn't, Oliver."

Oliver sobbed harder and tried to pull away.

John held him still and brushed his hand down Oliver's back to the quiver. "No, you didn't fail. You tried so very hard, Oliver. You did the absolute best you could. Malcolm won't harm anyone again. More of the Glades is still standing than there would have been without you." He squeezed Oliver's shoulders. "Yes, you lost, but you did _not_ fail."

Oliver ducked his head and John kept him close against his stomach as Oliver's sobbing trailed off into exhausted hiccups.

Felicity came close with a mug of yucky smelling tea. "His blend thingy."

John nodded, took it, and coaxed Oliver into taking a gulp.

Oliver frowned. "What'd...you spike it...wi..." He slumped down.

John caught the cup as Oliver's hand went slack. "What did you use?"

Felicity waved a pack at him. "Nothing too strong. He just...needed to sleep. Don't you think?"

John sighed and readjusted Oliver's position to lay him down on the cot. "Yes, but you aren't helping him be less mad at you, you know."

She shrugged. "In for a penny in for a pound. Or a pounding." She fidgeted with the cup he'd handed back to her. "Well, not that I think he'd actually hit me. He's pretty good about just glaring. He doesn't even just tell me to shut up, he'll just stare at me until I manage to stop myself on my own. Sort of like you are staring...Right. I'll...just go check on my in-progress searches."

John scratched at his bandage as he watched her go. He needed to call and check on people he knew while Felicity tracked down Oliver's still living family.

****

Oliver woke up and wished he hadn't. His mouth was too dry and he felt like he'd fallen asleep in his gear. He pushed himself up and blinked. He was in his gear. That was..."Oh."

Felicity sat in her chair clear on the other side of the room from him. "Oh? Is that a I-remember-what-you-did-and-I-am-mad-at-you oh or just a general oh?"

Oliver rubbed his thumb through the edge of paint around his eyes. "More general. I'm not mad at you."

She rolled over with a wet wipe in her hand. "Here. Diggle thought we shouldn't try to remove your gear while you were knocked out." She grimaced. "Sorry about that. I just...you were sobbing."

Oliver took the wipe and nodded as he folded the wipe to use it. "I wasn't in good shape."

"No." Felicity produced another wipe and started rubbing at his neck. "I didn't expect you to be. I, uh, I'm sorry I scared you to get you back here before anyone else could find you out."

Oliver frowned. He didn't remember her scaring him. He could remember knowing he needed to get back here as fast as he could. "You're alright?"

She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. John's got a wound, but we bandaged it. He went to help Carly clean up a little and keep looters at bay."

"Good. That's...good." Oliver stared down at the green smears on the wet wipe in his hand. "I should have died. Not Tommy."

Felicity smacked him and then stepped sideways with her hands on her mouth. "Oh, gosh. Sorry." She frowned. "No, actually, not sorry. Don't you _dare_ say you should have died."

Oliver held his head where she'd hit him and leaned back against the wall. "Felicity..."

"No." She dropped her hands and knelt down in front of him. "Oliver...I should have been faster. I should have figured out where the device was, that there was more than one..." She smiled as he shook his head. "See? You are about to tell me it isn't my fault. So how...how is it your fault if it isn't mine? Or Diggle's maybe?"

"Diggle's maybe, what?" Diggle came down the stairs with a box in his arms. "Carly says hello and to make sure we don't wear ourselves out with the recovery efforts."

****

John nudged Oliver into a chair and gently pried the bow from his hands. "You know what Carly will say if you don't at least try her food, Oliver."

Oliver nodded absently and shrugged off the quiver as John tugged on that too.

Felicity plunked down a coffee cup. "Promise I didn't spike this with anything, boss."

Oliver blinked and just stared at the food as Felicity gave John the worried puppy eyes over Oliver's head.

John pushed Felicity into a chair next to Oliver and then pulled up another chair. "Oliver, tell me about Tommy."

Oliver took a bite of food, blinked, and sat his fork down. "He is...better than me. He...was more honorable. He just..." He looked up at John. "He apologized to me. I'm this awful damaged _thing_ and he..."

John pulled Oliver in against his shoulder and beckoned Felicity near enough to pull her into the hug against Oliver's back. "Tommy loved you, Oliver, like the...brother he was to you."

Felicity's arms on them tightened as John's voice hitched. "You both did everything you could. Oliver, you gave him the best answer you could to give Tommy comfort in that moment. Nothing that has happened to you has made you a _thing_."

Oliver sobbed and curled tight between them.

John let him and soothed Felicity as she started to bite her lip again. It was the best he could do with them.

****

Thea pulled Roy along. His head needed looked at, but Thea didn't know where to go in all the chaos. She did know that the part of the Glades holding her brother's club was mostly untouched by the not-earthquake. 

Thea stumbled as she pulled the door to the club open. "Oliver!" She hoped he'd come here. He always seemed to come here when things at home sucked.

The bodyguard that put up with Ollie came from the back. "Thea?"

She pushed Roy at him. "Oh, good. Help me. He's heavy and I couldn't find a place not overflowing with people way more wounded." She frowned as the bodyguard started to check Roy over. "I'm really sorry. I don't...remember you name."

He glanced at her. "John Diggle, ma'am."

Thea nodded. "Right. Sorry."

He shrugged. "We don't talk often."

"True." She kept Roy still as Diggle looked him over. "I should though. You know Ollie better than me, now."

Diggle pressed his thumb against Roy's head. "Maybe. Thea, he needs medical attention."

"I know. I just...He kept trying to help people. I got him here by promising him that there were people to help here."

Oliver appeared at Diggle's elbow and Thea nearly gasped at the sight of him. So pale, and moving stiffly like he'd been rubble diving for survivors. 

"There will be people here. We're going to open the building to anyone that lost their home." Oliver helped hold Roy up as Diggle readjusted his hold.

She kept close until they'd settled Roy in one of the few booths. Diggle moved away, muttering about calling a doctor he knew.

Thea pounced on Oliver. "Ollie." She buried her face in his neck and sobbed. He curled around her and held her close.

"Thea, I'm glad you are alright."

"Mom..." Thea tucked her head tighter against Ollie's shoulder. "She...was arrested."

Ollie squeezed her a little tighter. "I think she was being blackmailed, Thea."

Thea nodded against him like that made any sense. She pulled back. "Can I stay here with Roy?"

He smiled fleetingly at her. "Sure, Speedy."

Thea frowned. "What happened? You look like someone you know died."

Ollie's face crumpled and he shook his head as he hurried away. Thea looked helplessly at Diggle as he approached with an icepack.

"What'd I say?"

Diggle put the icepack on Roy's head. "Tommy saved Laurel when her workplace collapsed, but was killed. Oliver spoke to him for a few minutes minutes before he died."

Thea covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh....oh, no." She pulled on Diggle's sleeve. "I didn't know. I swear..."

He patted her on the shoulder. "He knows that, Thea. He's just raw right now and, well, I think his time on the island taught him any comfort is suspect."

Thea scrubbed at her hair and adjusted Roy's icepack. "Yeah, he's faking so much anymore." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "Could you make sure he knows that I didn't know?"

Diggle nodded. "Of course, ma'am."

Thea watched him hurry while trying not to look like he was doing so as he followed in Ollie's wake.

****

John found Oliver curled in a ball around his bow in the far corner of the training area. Felicity was watching from her computers, but it looked like she was frozen on how to handle Oliver, who was sobbing again.

He snagged a bottle of water on his way over to Oliver. "You need to drink some of this."

Oliver swiped at his eyes and took the bottle from him. "I'm probably just going to throw it up."

John shrugged as he dropped to sit next to Oliver. "Go ahead. I'll just make you drink more afterwards."

With a weary smile, Oliver drank from the bottle. "I know she didn't know, but it just...hit me."

"Siblings are lucky hitters like that." John looked out across the floor. "She's going to find out about this, you know?" He gestured to it all.

Oliver nodded tiredly. "I have tried to keep my secret, but I sort of suck at it."

John nudged him in the shoulder. "Just because you weren't willing to shoot people you know well."

"Yeah." Oliver leaned against him just a little. "Tommy thought I would. Shoot him, that is. He told me once that he expected it."

"He was just angry, Oliver." John braced himself so that he could hold his position for as long as Oliver needed him to do so.

"I'm sorry."

John let Oliver go to sleep against his shoulder. "I know you are, Oliver. You don't need to be, but I know you are."

****


End file.
